Mar 8, 2013 04:48 PM EDT by LAPTOP EditorsHow We Graded (100 points possible)
Reviews (20 points)
By examining reviews from January through December 2012, this category is weighted heavily to reflect the average star ratings and performance scores from a given company’s notebooks. Extra points are offered for Editors’ Choice Award-winning machines.
Design (15 points)
We look at a company’s overall aesthetics for these 15 points, also taking into account build quality, use of color, relative size and weight versus competing machines and accessible ports.
Keyboard and Touchpads (15 points)
How well a user can interact with a laptop is absolutely essential in the complicated equation of what makes a good system. We award these points based on keyboard travel, flex and responsiveness. Touchpads should offer easy navigation, easy-to-use buttons and fluid gesture support. We also paid close attention to Windows 8 gestures.
Tech Support (15 points)
A brand is only as good as the technical support it offers. For this reason, each brand’s performance on our annual Tech Support Showdown is worth 15 percent of its final grade.
Displays and Audio (10 points)
If you don’t like the display quality on a machine, you’re likely going to return it. We balance that with the screen brightness, viewing angles, resolution and touch responsiveness (in those systems that support this input). We also take a close look at the audio quality offered by the speakers and the company’s use of specialized software and hardware to deliver the best sound. These points are awarded based on a brand’s overall ability to deliver quality sound and pleasing displays across all of its systems.
Value and Selection (10 points)
It’s not just about affordability in this category. It’s about whether the company’s systems offer better features and performance than the competition for the money across multiple price bands. We also consider a brand’s retail presence and whether its notebooks are available and customizable online.
Innovation(10 points)
Receiving added weight this year, for these points we looked for the companies who excelled at forward-thinking features and technologies and how well they’re executed. What new innovations did a brand first adopt or pioneer? And how well did they do?
Software (5 points)
For this category, we evaluate the branded utilities and third-party software that each company includes with its laptops. How useful and unique — or annoying — are the preloaded options?
Best and Worst Notebook Brands 2013
- Introduction
- How We Tested
- Overall Scorecard and Winners
- Ratings By Brands
March 16th, 2013 at 5:31 pm
This is so incorrect. Dell has the best technical support in the entire world – that is for sure. Giving 5 for tech support to dell? Im sure as hell this site isnt trustable.
March 18th, 2013 at 1:45 pm
Are you kidding? Dell has by far the worst customer support out there, I have had to talk to them (probably all Indians) several times for help and they didn’t do anything each time except put me on hold for an hour at a time.
March 18th, 2013 at 3:50 pm
@dubbs: I think Dogukan may be referring to Dell’s business line. I appreciate Dell’s consumer support is severely lacking, but their business support is second-to-none. Mind you, HP’s business support is also excellent, despite their consumer support being some of the worst I’ve ever encountered. I haven’t had experience with Apple’s business support so I’d be interested in that.
In regards to support, I’m surprised Lenovo favoured so highly. Almost every Lenovo laptop I provided had main board failures within a matter of months (predominantly G570 models, I believe), and Lenovo were severely, severely unhelpful. Ever tried to organise an RMA with them? They send you the label in the post, taking a few days, and make you call the courier yourself — it’s a huge faff on. Call any other manufacturer and they’ll just organise it over the phone.
Except for ASUS, of course. ASUS’ RMA line can wholeheartedly gobble on my proverbial. You’re stuck on hold, finally get through – then you’re issued an RMA request number. Then you go to some bullshit website of theirs, submit an RMA request, putting in that number and a load of other detail. Then they get back to you within 48 hours from there.
It’s just a tremendously horrible experience with the two aforementioned. I feel that if RMA support were to be considered, it’s a probability that HP, Apple and Toshiba may be a little higher up. This is due to the large amount of authorised repair centres that both Toshiba and HP have. Naturally Apple have the Apple Stores, which is the next best thing.
Sorry for the essay, just hoping to give my two cents.
March 22nd, 2013 at 7:54 am
I have to disagree with these ratings. Apple support is terrible. Have a system failure and try to get assistance at the Apple Store.
March 24th, 2013 at 1:13 am
How much is Acer paying you to give them 1st place? I work for a well known retail store and Acer is the most returned. Asus should be on top of all.
March 24th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
I think this article is biased. When buying a laptop we do not really seek innovative conceptual designs, great keyboards, or even tech support; we simply look for a laptop that is durable, one that won’t break down so easily. Dell and Fujitsu Siemens are the most long-lasting laptops I have ever used. Acer, HP and Lenovo being the worst. Apple, … well, if you ain’t living in America or Europe, it doesn’t really concern you. I never tried Asus, but it does look very robust I have to admit.
March 25th, 2013 at 11:17 pm
Why isn’t more weight given to the actual company? I can read reviews on specific computers to decide on value and design. When ranking brands by far the most critical information is how it is dealing with them. For instance, I will not ever buy a lenovo again because of how badly I was treated by the customer service. I want to find a good brand name, and then from there I can select the best computer. I don’t care about the rest when comparing brands, that’s all computer specific.
March 26th, 2013 at 4:26 am
TJParma,
Holy F ! Nice work wind bag . Did you actually read the article or all or look at the alphabetized list and see that acer was the first? Oh and what apple second? Holy shite there is a pattern. Oh wow yup! I’m just too freaking brilliant to read any of the article. Bravo you lil wize one. Comments like yours truly are amazing. Keep up the good work! Truly blows my hair back with data in front of you; that a completely uneducated , opinionated comment could be made.
March 26th, 2013 at 4:32 am
Did any of you read this? I am seriously laughing at all of you.
March 26th, 2013 at 4:57 am
Have to agree with comments about Apple. Problems with my iPad, lot of faffing about online for help, then email to tell me the iPad should be sent back – but to wait for instructions to do this. Waited patiently, nothing came, no instructions, no label – and then they sent an email to say case now closed ( presumably because I hadn’t answered their not sent instructions), sent a polite response – and still no reply – two weeks now.
Was thinking of apple laptop but now trying to convince my daughters not to bother with Apple either. Given their proprietary methods otherwise, think will upgrade my mobile etc when time comes, to another make.
Sorry for the long response, looking for best laptop and at the moment thinking it may be HP envy for size of screen and storage T2, little more investigation needed because of the price.
March 26th, 2013 at 5:30 am
Needed to speak to Dell (alienware) for support the other day. Went through to reception by accident they immediately transferred me over to the relevant person. they then asked me to find some details and said they would call me back in half an hour. The man then called me exactly 30 minutes later and dealt with my problems. Was a 10/10 for customer service in my opinion for dell.
March 30th, 2013 at 4:19 pm
Love my Mac Book Pro, had it 2 years..
Only one complain, the keys keep pupping out, frustrating it is.When ever I made appointment, always, on time etc…
Support is great at Apple, staff is always polite, although I felt a little rush to buy the last item I purchase ( Ipod touch 5th generation),
the young man seemed in a hurry to make another sale.
Otherwise, this is the company to buy from, great service and the store is always, spotless
C. Bader
March 31st, 2013 at 4:09 pm
to be honest .
Apple is the best laptop overall that I’ve come across .
Acer their laptop are fine , but once you have it for over a year it gets laggy,
that goes for the other laptops too , except the MacBook .
I had almost all laptop brands and to say Apple is the best .
My cousin also has her MacBook Air which she bought years ago .
I personally like MacBooks because they’re easy transportable,
nice looking , have a great firewall , but , Apple are a little pricey .
April 9th, 2013 at 2:46 pm
This is such a BS! Apple is so old school with everything PC inside. And giving them 5 for Software ??? Seriously? Since when Apple products have better soft then PC? And since when Apple tech support is the best??? such an Apple sponsored article!
BTW 70% of all new laptops are touchscreen now, don’t see this this tendencies from the “innovative” Apple company.
April 10th, 2013 at 2:14 am
Was this sponsored by Lenovo as it is mentioned as featured sponsor? I highly doubt how professional these rankings are..
April 10th, 2013 at 7:28 am
@Viktor
Since when do Apple products have better software than PCs?
1984.
April 12th, 2013 at 10:32 pm
Given that most notebook computers are fundamentally the same, the most important factor for me is how long will one last and how durable is it. This article completely failed to account for this crucial factor, a factor that I would personally assign at least 20%-25% of the points.
And BTW, HP laptops have some of the crummiest build quality on the planet. Square Trade statistics show this and my own experience in my shop confirms this as I seem more prematurely dead or dying HP laptops than any other brand. And sadly enough, HP biz class laptops are no better than their consumer ones, unlike Dell, who at least makes a decent biz class laptop, namely their Latitudes.
April 13th, 2013 at 11:55 am
Po da panni the cheapest the costlyiest the good the bad the durable the is the best no it is waste
April 13th, 2013 at 1:49 pm
dell by far is the worst product i ever purchased. desktop, notebook, printers, customer support all below average. will never buy any dell product again.
April 14th, 2013 at 3:25 pm
Toshiba last??? i have a old toshiba with more water and land an abandoned house. And it works even with 9 years of suffering without failure
April 14th, 2013 at 4:23 pm
As far I’m concern with the laptops, the best was DELL because it never have technical problems, the battery isnt bad, the processors are good and even they are so comfortable to use. Acer and lenovo are new brands there would be fails found in it when you use it, The above ranking is perfectly RANDOMLY RANDOM!!!
April 15th, 2013 at 8:30 pm
I always thought Dell is the best. I used my old DELL for ten years. The service was good. They replaced transformer at no cost after waranty. I thought.. and I bought Dell laptop and desktop and both have problems.
I lost access to Printers in my desktop. A laptop has a problem with power switch.
April 16th, 2013 at 2:35 pm
honestly no matter what you can never really find out which computer laptop etc will be best because all will have faults in one way or another no computer will ever be perfect no matter how hard u look and try you wont find it because technology is constantly progressing everyday. Personally i wouldnt pay more than 600 for a laptop and i would look for one just that has all the programs i need in it and would a good processor and storage.I wouldnt go ballistic and try to find the best one out there because once u buy that one another will come out and then you basically wasted all your money on this one product its not worth it . Nor is it worth arguing over and bickering about instead of criticizing each other help each other out wouldnt you want someone to do the same for you ….
April 16th, 2013 at 11:12 pm
Viktor Says:
April 9th, 2013 at 2:46 pm
This is such a BS! Apple is so old school with everything PC inside. And giving them 5 for Software ??? Seriously? Since when Apple products have better soft then PC? And since when Apple tech support is the best??? such an Apple sponsored article!
BTW 70% of all new laptops are touchscreen now, don’t see this this tendencies from the “innovative” Apple company.
**********
What are you talking about? Apple is old school? Have you ever used a Mac? And yes, Apple absolutely deserves a 5 for software. Most PCs come with a bunch of useless crap that consumers NEVER use. The only software that a new Mac comes with is the most powerful operating system ever created and a suite of apps called iLife. If anyone thinks that Window’s Movie Maker is even comparable to iMovie, they have obviously never used the software and probably refuse to, simply because they hate Apple for a pointless reason. Apple tech support continues to be the best in the industry. The fact that I can take my MacBook Pro into any Apple store and receive one-on-one assistance is priceless. That alone beats any phone or chat tech support. And… I don’t have to worry about purchasing a GeekSquad subscription that is mediocre at best as Apple includes its support for FREE! No brand can beat that.
April 18th, 2013 at 3:49 am
Yeah, I highly dispute Apple being the winner. For many of the reasons stated above, not to mention they deserve a whopping 0-1 for innovation this year. Are you kidding? Writer, you even say “apple has done little to raise their innovation needle over the past year” or something along those lines. Not just that, they haven’t updated much of anything body wise for at least the past 2-3 years.
I’d also like to point out (since you appear to believe this), Apple was not in the least at the forefront of high-pixel density displays. Many, many notebook manufacturers have been offering high-end laptops for the past few years. Apple hasn’t improved upon resolution technology (except possibly in the case of mobile phone screens, I don’t know much about what was on the market pre-iPhone 4), nor have they done anything to make it even slightly more affordable.
So yeah, tell me again how Apple managed to score an 8/10 for notebook innovation THIS YEAR?
April 18th, 2013 at 3:51 am
*high-end laptops with equivalent resolutions (to “Retina”)
April 20th, 2013 at 9:19 pm
I have had a Dell Vostro 1500 for 6-7 years. it is a workhorse. Only draw back is the weight, which is not a real concern. If my kids did not drop it and crash the hard drive I would not be on this site looking for a new one. Thought it was time to get another opinion. The comment about the business support is correct. It is excellent but the regular consumer support is third world. Does anyone have a recommendation for a $600-$750 laptop or tablet that is used mainly for email and word processing?
April 22nd, 2013 at 1:36 am
Well said Me Echo…
I just want a long lasting battery life laptop, any suggestions?
April 23rd, 2013 at 4:24 pm
adssad,
Spoken like a true Apple hater. I suppose the Retina displays mean jack, eh? “not in the least at the forefront of high-pixel density displays”. Please.
April 25th, 2013 at 1:25 pm
Whoever said that Dell has good customer support…. I spent $4000 on a laptop with them and it only worked for a month. They never fixed it, I spent 6 months trying to get warranty replacement. Never will buy a dell again.
April 26th, 2013 at 5:13 pm
Now I Have HP dv 7, I think this laptop is the best, but… cooler work slowly..
April 28th, 2013 at 1:25 am
@Dan
I would recommend a lenovo thinkpad. They might be a bit over budget but are very sturdy and reliable.
May 1st, 2013 at 11:46 pm
i think any laptop is good. it all depends on what you are after and what you are using it for. also if you keep updating softwares like anti-virus, anti-spam, etc, i think your laptop will last and if you use it wisely and take good care of it, then maybe it will reach 5years or more. believe me, i’ve used all sorts of laptops and all brands are good. you just need to take that extra time to see if everything inside your laptop is working fine like hardware components, etc. maybe take it to an IT Expert and have them run a Preventative Maintenance on it maybe every 2months so you know that your laptop is working fine. it’s also becoz you know that everytime you do this, you can prevent errors from happening and it saves you time, money and energy. hope that helps.
May 4th, 2013 at 1:29 am
Dell has the worst customer service bar none. I paid for their warranty, and when my screen had a minor issue I sent it in. They guarantee on their site that they will return it within 5 business days fixed. 30 days and 20 angry phone calls later I finally had my laptop back. Their customer support would bounce me around from person to person, who were hard to understand given their poor English skills. I learned through the UPS tracking # that my laptop was sitting in Dell’s warehouse, 30 minutes from my house, for 4 days completely fixed before it was returned to me. Furthermore, they literally sent my laptop to an incorrect address. They screwed up and did not read the address on the form correctly. Incredibly frustrating.
Additionally, my laptop couldn’t hold a charge so I called and asked to which they suggested I buy a new battery. I bought a new battery directly from dell, and guess what: it didn’t work. God, I hate dell.
May 10th, 2013 at 10:43 pm
For me , Ill go with Toshiba
May 10th, 2013 at 10:45 pm
I currently work at a large aerospace machining company. We bought Dell computers and server for a number of years. The Dell computers suck. I mean, they are terribly bad. It’s sad, because Dell used to be so good. I think that in their dominance they forgot about how important it is to make quality products (which Lenovo quickly came in and figured out how to do). We’ve been buying Lenovo laptops and notebooks and they are definitely the best laptop brand out there right now.
I think that your charts makes sense. Thanks for sharing them!
May 12th, 2013 at 11:22 pm
HP’s are just are overpriced heaters. We use HP at work unfortunately and they are useless and slow. I would never buy a Dell, HP or Compaq.
May 15th, 2013 at 7:17 am
Top best & worst laptop details
May 15th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
Well, I’m using about ten years old HP Compaq CQ60 and it’s still functioning… Even though I had to repair hinges, because I broke them (And the material has some lifetime of it’s own too…) and there are issues with cooling, well, the ventilator holes for cooling are pointed down, not a single on side, so that’s just fault of that it’s and old piece… Yes, for today laptops it’s slow like snail, but it’s still working without any hardware damage. Just wanted to say.
May 15th, 2013 at 9:03 pm
retina display… people talk about this like it is the most amazing thing on the planet, and to some extent, pixel density is pretty amazing, only problem with it, is you can only tell a difference 3INCHES FROM THE SCREEN!!!. Being that most people do not set their screens that close to their faces, the retina display is a useless commodity… also, this brings into question, how can the internet really handle retina quality images on all web pages? being a amateur photographer, raw and psd files are quite large, and I’m guessing images that show off what retinal display can do have to be as large or larger. Now we come back to the web, and suddenly your going to apples web page and their are 8 different 25 meg pictures on it? having an apple or a pc based system is not about which one is better, its about what you want on a computer. I’ll stick with my toshiba I7 with 8 gigs of ram, nice hard drive and decent battery life. can run any of the most graphicly intensive games made, and its 800… macs in general? I would have had to pay 2400 for something close? Ive had the computer a year, its been with me on trails, in coffee shops, in class (mac desktop couldnt handle how large my adobe illustration file, or it was lagging, either way I had to use my computer for the work) and it works as well as I could ever want it to… my one and only issue is going from windows 7 to 8, now I have to open each document for word within the program or it thinks I have not yet bought it.
May 19th, 2013 at 4:28 pm
I have had my HP laptop for four years now and although I have had some issues with the operating system, I still love the computer. When the choice comes between buying a computer brand I stay close to HP, Dell, and Samsung which, is all a personal choice.
May 24th, 2013 at 2:06 pm
I started reading the reviews and thought they were alright until i saw they put apple as number 1. First of all, most software these days aren’t available on Mac’s at launch so the score shouldnt be a 5/5 though over the past years, it has gotten a lot better. Next, i can honestly say most of y’all probably havent dealt with apple customer support because they treat everyone like a 20 year old starbucks idoit, my old gf had a Mac and it was having issues so i contacted them for them to try and confuse me by making up some technical jargon that most non-computer savvy people wouldnt understand and just accept so I would need to buy a new computer. Of course, this was after waiting almost an hour on hold (but i’ve had this issue with many companies, so i got use to the wait). Personally, i own two computers; a PC for gaming and a laptop for work. Neither are apple products due to the poor software compatibility, poor customer service, overpriced (though it has gotten better), and personal preference with windows. Additionally, software compatibility should have a much larger impact on rating than “design”.